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Remembering the dead in rural Catalunya
international |
environment |
feature
Tuesday November 03, 2009 14:12 by 1 of imc
Commemorating the Battle of the Ebro in the Terra Alta
Windmills mark the line of the Great Retreats
Seventy years after the Battle of the Ebro the dead remain unburied and the ghosts of Franco's dictatorship still haunt the landscape. Indymedia investigates...
Related Links:
A Catalan blogger's post on the remains in the Terra Alta | An English translation of Elies 115's original post | Website for the old town of Corbera | The official state-sponsored website for the Battle of the Ebro
Human bones at the edge of a forest outside la Fatarella |
There’s
something of a feel of the backwoods in the northern hills of
the Terra Alta, that part of Catalunya tucked into the mountains west
of the Ebro. Here, the high ground to the north of the main valley is
scored with crooked lines of olive and almond trees, stone-terraced
into the hillsides between patches of parched scrubland and isolated
wooded summits. An occasional ruin breaks the skyline or nudges into
the side of a barranca but by Irish standards,
the landscape is
depopulated and abandoned. The area is of course extraordinarily
beautiful, as we'd say in Ireland, unspoilt.
Most people from
around here live in the small towns of la Fatarella, Vilalba dels Arcs
or further west in Batea. Isolated farmhouses do hang on in decreasing
numbers, some offering rough wine-tasting during the day, others a
rustic bed and breakfast to souls needful of a particular quality of
isolation. For here ruins remain ruins. There are no dilapidated fincas
receiving the attentions of well-intentioned ex-pats, there are few
enough Es Ven signs fixed to broken walls. Here
the crumpled sun-dried
placards advertising properties marketable in an earlier economy lie
forgotten alongside the road, littered among rusting sherds of shrapnel
and fragments of human bone.
The valley below carries the main road from Tarragonna west into
Aragón. The ruined hilltop village of Corbera d’Ebre, its church spire
proud and intact, dominates the eastern end of the valley and
overshadows the new town straddling the road. Corbera was heavily
bombed by the Nationalists over the course of the great Ebro offensive
launched by the Republic in July 1938 and like Belchite to the west, it
has been left to the elements and to the tourists, discomforting
reminders of an unresolved conflict, the memory of which so-far has
been successfully managed by the Catalan state. |
The main road
continues west to the town of Gandesa, the military focus
of the battle, which though lasting just 115 days took over 130,000
lives. South of here are the Serra Cavalls which rise up into the
serrated peaks of the Serra de Pàndols, their heights delineated by the
pine tree line which occasionally obscures the ridge. Go further west
through Calaceite and here the high ground recedes at either side.
Beyond Alcañiz and further into Aragón the landscape opens onto a wide
upland plateau ringed by distant mountains, with massive fields of
winter wheat carpeting a rolling steppe extending onwards to a point
just beyond eyeshot. On the road to Belchite an area of several square
kilometres accommodates a sun farm, manifesting on the landscape as an
army of flat-headed alien warriors arranged in tilted ranks, dwarfing a
surprisingly flimsy fence.
All of these landscapes are central
to the history of the XV International Brigade, from the initial
storming of Belchite and Quinto but more crucially to what become known
as the Great Retreats of March and April 1938,
where Republican forces
were progressively routed back towards and across the Ebro. Many
Internationals caught behind the lines were summarily executed with
others surviving the remainder of the war in concentration camps such
as San Pedro de Cardeña outside Burgos. When the Brigade advanced back
across the Ebro the following July, local people showed them the mass
graves into which their comrades had been thrown, often after the quick
executions they themselves had been forced to witness. In any event,
the Brigade never succeeded in taking Gandesa and was withdrawn in
September after 60 days in the line.
The Ebro offensive was the
last throw of the dice for the Republican government and its initial
success was something of an embarrassment for Franco who was again
forced to call upon his German and Italian allies, just at the point
where he was about to send them home. The nature of Franco’s defeat of
the Republican government and the subsequent repression which lasted
well into the 1970s was particularly felt in Catalunya, which apart
from its separatist aspirations was the principal industrial base of
the CNT, the main anarchist trade union. In the countryside, the
repression was initially marked by the liquidation of anyone said to
have actively opposed the coup, followed quickly by the banning of the
Catalan language and a rationing system which was markedly more severe
than in ostensibly ’loyal’ areas. Nationalist battlefield fatalities
were recovered and buried in the combatants’ home localities.
International causalities, with a few significant exceptions, were
buried hurriedly in mass graves or, in more remote areas, piled into
the barrancas and pine copses which bestow the
hills their remarkable
landscape and covered with cairns of stones. |
Sun farm close to a rearguard position outside Belchite |
Monument to the battle incorporating an ossuary at los Camposines |
The roads in
the Terra Alta are dark and untravelled at night time, the
older ones, tarred-over dusty tracks, snake over the hills in tight
curves around stepped orchards and dry stream beds. The main roads into
Gandesa and Ascó are now being straightened to facilitate the
construction of a large wind farm enveloping the hilltops in seemingly
arbitrary patterns covering perhaps some 80km. The 6km between la
Fatarella and Vilalba accommodates some 22 windmills, with bulldozers
clearing stretches of land for associated access roads and ancillary
structures. Driving along at night, their gigantic spines rear up on
all sides, frozen shadows projected in random sequence against the
verges, caught in the pulsing strobes from the derrick lights high
above. Local environmentalists opposed to this section of the wind farm
were not slow to recognise its route across a massive graveyard in
their campaign to halt their development. One such opponent, Elies 115
(whose blog is worryingly subtitled Déu, Pàtria i Honor),
graphically
illustrated the human remains encountered on a walk through the hills
near la Fatarella in July 2008 and the story was picked up all over
Catalunya. Many subsequently voiced an opinion in the local media that
had Roman remains been encountered, all works would have stopped to
allow a thorough investigation.
What differentiates the remains
recorded by Elies 115 from those emerging from other mass graves in the
Spanish countryside is the fact that they most probably belong to
members of the International Brigades. Although it is not suggested
here that this has precluded a proper investigation of their remains,
it is nonetheless of interest given the considerable body of literature
associated with the Brigades when compared to their number relative to
the republican army as a whole. For archaeological work engaging with
Franco-era Spain has concentrated mostly on civilian mass grave sites.
These hold the remains of the many thousands of socialists, communists,
anarchists, schoolteachers and even liberals, executed for their
beliefs, their resistance to the victors or simply by hearsay.
Excavations have been undertaken under the auspices of the Asociación
para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, a body
established on a
grassroots basis in 2000, which has calculated the existence of some
30,000 such sites throughout the country. In the Priorat region of
Catalunya, on the far side of the Ebro from Terra Alta, the
organisation No Jubilem La Memòria focuses more
on commemoration and
education with some significant attention being paid to the role of the
International Brigades in the conflict. The excavations throughout
Spain have now uncovered hundreds of burials, emphasising the
oppression supposedly forgotten under the post-Franco pact of amnesia,
where old wounds were let lie for the good of the fledging democracy.
Politically, this is to the advantage of the Socialist PSOE and the
enacting of the Ley de Memoria Histórica (Law of
Historical Memory) in
2007 has undeniably given the excavations a legislative basis,
irrespective of feelings on the Nationalist side. Often undertaken in
the media spotlight with relatives of the deceased present standing
along the baulks, the excavations provide harrowing testimony of the
extent of the Nationalist repression. |
Other more contentious issues have emerged: the muted
enthusiasm of some families for the closure provided by the recovery of
physical remains of their loved ones has contrasted with the
discomfiture evident on the faces of the family of Federico García
Lorca, who are at this moment awaiting the excavation of his remains
after refusing for many years to have his grave disturbed. In Galicia
and León former huídos, partisans who remained
behind to continue the
war from the mountains, have argued that the remains of their comrades
should stay in the ground as incontrovertible and enduring evidence
against Franco and his regime.
An archaeological investigation
undertaken prior to the construction of another wind farm elsewhere in
the Terra Alta made little of the human bones and battlefield détruis
scattered along the terraces and in the scrub. The report made more of
the trenches, the rude caves and refugios carved
out of the sandy
subsoil, lending thirsty shelter from the constant Nationalist
bombardment; the physical manifestations of the battle which today
survive on the landscape. Yet, despite the plethora of recent work on
the period, both academic and commemorative, there has been little
attempt made to contextualise the human remains, which as likely date
to the Great Retreats as they do to the Ebro
offensive. Moreover, there
has been little discussion as to what should now be done with the
bones, whether they should lie there in perpetual memory of the war or
whether they should be systematically collected and placed in the
monument at los Camposines which acts as a ossuary for human remains
recovered from the surrounding fields and hillsides.
State-sponsored
commemoration of the battle of the Ebro was prompted by last year’s
70th anniversary and has taken the form of a series of panels located
at significant points on the landscape, all anchored to an
interpretative centre in Corbera and notionally to the monument in los
Camposines. Under the auspices of Memorial Democràtic
the Catalan
government has certainly made an effort to commemorate both sides of
the conflict, the rusty orange signage and an accompanying series of
information leaflets brands its commemoration for modern, all-embracing
consumption. The souvenirs and tee shirts available at the 115 Days
centre in Corbera are based on the graphic of a military helmet, one
curiously more Republican than Nationalist in its typology. The
interpretation within is dispassionate and uncontroversial; the centre,
an anodyne exercise in contemporary architecture, was deserted the
afternoon we visited. |
The ruins of the old town of Corbera |
Private museum at Corbera |
Just up the street from the interpretative centre is a private
museum, Exposició La Trinxera, which trades in
bullets, guns and
(mostly) republican uniforms draped over ‘70s shop window mannequins.
Here a different experience is to be had: the exhibition confined to
one large cluttered room, old-fashioned display cases line the space
containing a mesmerising quantity of personal equipment and assorted
militaria; the walls are covered with campaign maps, propaganda sheets
and government proclamations. The floorspace is taken up with a full
sized Republican command post along with various large weapons and a
mule professionally fashioned from wire, carrying the obligatory
ammunition boxes. The owner/curator has a large shed to the rear
crammed with similar booty and takes particular pride that his Maxim
machine gun is an original artefact, unlike that one displayed in
another semi-private museum down the road in Gandesa. One returns to
the sunlight with thirsty lungs, convinced that the patched, ragged
costumes within have been taken from the dry bones lying out on the
hills.
A different engagement with the memory of the battle can
be experienced in the ruined village on the hilltop, itself a protected
historical site. Here local artist Jesús Pedrola has for several years
curated the Alphabet of Freedom, a collaborative
project comprising
large letters arranged throughout the ruined streetscape by visiting
artists in a variety of media and styles. More recently a more formal
entity, the Patronage del Poble Vell, has been
set up by members of the
community backed by the local council with the clear objective of
‘preserving and restoring’ the site. According to their website
'A
lot of people visit the site and it concerns our own history. A history
testified in the stones which we wish to restore and preserve, to leave
in better condition for the younger generation. We don't wish the site
to be lost or to deteriorate more.'
The inherent technical
challenge of trying to preserve a site already in ruins has not however
been addressed and it will be interesting to see how in the future
Corbera will weigh up against Belchite, a less visited spot yet one
which seems to diminish with each passing year. |
One of the
objectives of the Patronage is to create a
photographic
archive that will serve to preserve the memory of the village as it
was, while at the same time providing an exhibition space for donated
works from artists associated with the alphabet project. A
semi-derelict house on the edge of the old village has been acquired
and is about to undergo conservation works, funded by ANAV, the power
company which operates the 40-year old nuclear plant on the Ebro at
Ascó. The house stands directly beside the building Pedrola has been
reconstructing over several years at his own cost, which functions as
an information point for those visiting the ruined village. He is now
under pressure from the town hall to close up the building, which
provides him with a meagre income to protect the alphabet through the
sale of books and posters. He worries how Corbera’s story will be
presented in the new building and is suspicious of the input from ANAV,
where the power plant is still seen as a legacy of the dictatorship.
Those
supporting the construction of the wind farms point to the nuclear
plant and its abysmal safety record. The most recent incident relates
to a serious leak which occurred in November 2007: although radioactive
particles were still being detected outdoors on 14 March 2008, the
Spanish Nuclear Energy Authority was not informed of the incident until
4 April. Local groups were incensed that staff at the plant had allowed
a school trip to go ahead just a day before the leak was made public.
In August the Energy Authority announced penalties against the plant of
up to €22.5 million for a series of breaches, including their failure
to immediately report the leak. The Zapatero government has pledged to
make Spain nuclear-free, but has not proposed a meaningful time frame.
Meanwhile it’s hoped that the sun and the wind can provide an
ever-increasing proportion of the country’s needs into the future.
Back
up in the hills, the construction of the wind farm continues apace.
With most of the windmills already erected, those opposed to their
construction are admitting defeat. But what of the human remains that
have been disturbed in their construction? On 17 June last the Catalan
parliament passed legislation on the recovery and identification of
those who disappeared during the Civil War and subsequent dictatorship.
The new law places the onus on the Catalan state to locate the graves
of missing persons, supporting the rights of their descendants to
obtain information about their fate and, if appropriate, to excavate
their remains. The law further supports the marking of such mass graves
and their preservation as places of memory, to satisfy people’s right
to know the truth of events during the period and the political
circumstances in which the disappearances occurred.
As García
Lorca’s descendants are about to discover, the science of DNA matching
has advanced sufficiently to allow the identification (or otherwise) of
remains from known burial sites. Attempting, however systematically, to
recover individual lives and histories from disarticulated bones
gathered from the hillsides is another story. Given that the remains
are as likely to belong to volunteers from outside Spain renders the
task all the more impossible. It perhaps serves a greater purpose that
the bones should remain where they lie with their anonymity intact, a
reminder for all of the sacrifices made in the attempt to defeat
fascism in Spain. In an economy where ruined villages compete with
private museums and interpretative centres, where international
solidarity has been replaced by the globalised capital of the power
companies, perhaps the only real experience left is to walk through the
landscape yourself, your back to the windmills and your eyes to the
ground against the sun. |
Jesús Pedrola, curator of the Alphabet of Peace |
Those interested in the issues raised here may want to attend a talk by
Prof Ermengol Gassiot (University of Barcelona) entitled ‘The Politics
of Memory: Unearthing Mass Graves from the Spanish Civil War’. It’s on
Friday 13 November in Room C6002 in the Arts Block, TCD between
13.00-14.30.
Jesús's partner Anna fills us in on what's happening
Graffito opposing the windfarm in la Fatarella
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